When multiple infusion pumps are connected to a patient or multichannel infusion pumps are used, it becomes difficult to trace the right tubing line for priming, fluid supply management, locating and correcting occlusions and air-in-line, making set-up connections, and making disconnections.
Current infusion pumps do not have an automated way of tracing the lines. According to current clinical practice, before tubing is connected or reconnected to a patient, a staff clinician is required to completely trace the infusion tubing line from the patient through the pump to the source of fluid for verification. To assist manual tracing, sometimes the infusion tubing lines are manually labeled. The current solution of manually tracing tubing lines is not very efficient and it can introduce errors that could potentially harm the patient. Manual line tracing delays therapy and takes a lot of valuable time from the clinician. More importantly, potential connection errors may occur and have potentially hazardous consequences to the patient. Some of the critical errors are tubing misconnections and air embolism.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0264045 addresses the problem of tracing a tubing line from the pump to the patient by providing a sensor in the pump near a downstream connection receiving an end of the tubing. The clinician squeezes the tubing anywhere along its length between the pump and the patient, and the pressure pulse generated by the squeezing action is detected by the sensor, which triggers an alarm at the pump. While this system represents progress, it has its shortcomings. For example, it does not provide for tracing between the fluid source and the pump. Also, where two or more lines are crossed and touch one another, there is no indication of such a cross-over condition and the other lines involved are not identified to the clinician.
There is a need for a more robust automatic tracing system.